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DAILY Prophecy News at a Glance Read about the ANTI Christ BIBLE Here The EU Religious Leaders are PROMOTING IT! |
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ISRAELI EXERCISE DEMONSTRATES NEW CAPABILITIES
October 15, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Israel's military has completed an exercise said to have demonstrated new capabilities for conventional and urban warfare.
Officials said the exercise, dubbed ‘Integrated Serial Combat,’ marked one of the most important multi-service maneuvers in 2004 and meant to test a range of capabilities and techniques for both conventional and urban warfare. They said the exercise yielded flawless firepower accuracy by both armored and artillery forces.
‘We have presented here a very wide range of capabilities,’ Maj. Gen. Yiftah Ron-Tal, chief of the Ground Forces Command, said. ‘We saw capabilities and combat techniques that weren't here four years ago, two years ago, even a month ago.’
The exercise on Oct. 13 in southern Israel combined two scenarios by the same air and ground forces in a demonstration of the flexibility of combat units. The first exercise tested the capability of main battle tanks, artillery, and engineering and bridging units against the Syrian military. In the second exercise, the force raided a mock Palestinian village in a test of urban warfare skills…” View Original Article
FRANCE, KUWAIT DISCUSS ARMS SALES
October 15, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Kuwait has resumed discussions over arms sales with France.
A delegation from France's state-owned arms agency held talks with Kuwait's Defense Ministry on Oct. 12. The delegation met a range of Kuwaiti defense officials and military commanders in what was described as a review of bilateral defense relations as well as discussions of prospective deals.
France has been a major defense supplier to Kuwait. Over the last decade, France has supplied helicopters, missile fast-patrol boats, anti-ship missiles and surface-to-air missiles. The two countries also conduct military exercises, including a major multi-service maneuver in early 2004.
The official Kuwait News Agency reported that Kuwaiti Defense Minister Jaber Mubarak Al Sabah met the delegation from France's arms export agency. A Defense Ministry statement said Mubarak's meeting with the delegation focused on ‘bilateral relations and latest developments in the international and regional arenas.’…” View Original Article
SANHEDRIN LAUNCHED IN TIBERIAS
October 14th, 2004
A unique ceremony - probably only the 2nd of its kind in the past 1,600 years -
took place in Tiberias today: The launching of a Sanhedrin, the highest
Jewish-legal tribunal in the Land of Israel.
A unique ceremony - probably only the second of its kind in the past 1,600 years
- is taking place in Tiberias today: The launching of a Sanhedrin, the highest
Jewish-legal tribunal in the Land of Israel.
The Sanhedrin, a religious assembly that convened in one of the Holy Temple
chambers in Jerusalem, comprised 71 sages and existed during the Tannaitic
period, from several decades before the Common Era until roughly 425 C.E.
Details of today's ceremony are still sketchy, but the organizers' announced
their intention to convene 71 rabbis who have received special rabbinic
ordination as specified by Maimonides.
An attempt to reconvene the Sanhedrin was made several centuries ago in Tzfat.
The body in fact ordained such greats as Rabbi Yosef Karo, the author of the
classic Jewish Law code Shulhan Arukh. However, the opposition of other leading
rabbis soon forced the end of the endeavor.
One of the leaders of today's attempt to revive the Sanhedrin is Rabbi Yeshai
Ba'avad of Beit El. He said that the 71 rabbis "from across the spectrum
received the special ordination, in accordance with Maimonides' rulings, over
the past several months." Rabbi Ba'avad explained that the membership of
the new body is not permanent: "What is much more crucial is the
establishment of this body. Those who are members of it today will not
necessarily be its members tomorrow. But the goal is to have one rabbinic body
in Jerusalem that will convene monthly and issue rulings on central issues. This
is the need of the generation and of the hour."
Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, who heads the Temple institute in Jerusalem, is one of the
participating rabbis. He told Arutz-7 today, "Whether this will be the
actual Sanhedrin that we await, is a question of time - just like the
establishment of the State; we rejoiced in it, but we are still awaiting
something much more ideal. It's a process. Today's ceremony is really the
continuation of the renewal of the Ordination process in Israel, which we marked
several months ago. Our Talmudic Sages describe the ten stages of exile of the
Sanhedrin from Jerusalem to other locations, until it ended in Tiberias - and
this is the place where it was foretold that it would be renewed, and from here
it will be relocated to Jerusalem."
Rabbi Ariel said that the rabbis there included many from the entire spectrum:
"Hareidi, religious-Zionist, Sephardi, Ashkenazi, hassidi, and many others
- such as Rabbi Yoel Schwartz, Rabbi Adin Shteinzaltz, and many others... We
can't expect a great consensus; that's not how things work here. But sometimes
that's how the process goes, from the bottom up."
FDA Approves - Implantable RFID - The Mark IS Here!
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FDA approves computer chip for humans Devices could help doctors with stored medical information The VeriChip, the size of a grain of rice, is inserted under the skin with a needle in a procedure that takes less than 20 minutes to complete. |
WASHINGTON - Medical milestone or privacy invasion? A tiny computer chip approved Wednesday for implantation in a patient’s arm can speed vital information about a patient’s medical history to doctors and hospitals. But critics warn that it could open new ways to imperil the confidentiality of medical records.
The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that Applied Digital Solutions of Delray Beach, Fla., could market the VeriChip, an implantable computer chip about the size of a grain of rice, for medical purposes.With the pinch of a syringe, the microchip is inserted under the skin in a procedure that takes less than 20 minutes and leaves no stitches. Silently and invisibly, the dormant chip stores a code that releases patient-specific information when a scanner passes over it.
Think UPC code. The identifier, emblazoned on a food item, brings up its name and price on the cashier’s screen.
Chip's dual
uses raise alarm
The VeriChip itself contains no medical records, just codes
that can be scanned, and revealed, in a doctor’s office or hospital. With
that code, the health providers can unlock that portion of a secure database
that holds that person’s medical information, including allergies and
prior treatment. The electronic database, not the chip, would be updated
with each medical visit.
The microchips have already been implanted in 1 million pets. But the chip’s possible dual use for tracking people’s movements — as well as speeding delivery of their medical information to emergency rooms — has raised alarm.
“If privacy protections aren’t built in at the outset, there could be harmful consequences for patients,” said Emily Stewart, a policy analyst at the Health Privacy Project.
To protect patient privacy, the devices should reveal only vital medical information, like blood type and allergic reactions, needed for health care workers to do their jobs, Stewart said.
An information technology guru at Detroit Medical Center, however, sees the benefits of the devices and will lobby for his center’s inclusion in a VeriChip pilot program.
“One of the big problems in health care has been the medical records situation. So much of it is still on paper,” said David Ellis, the center’s chief futurist and co-founder of the Michigan Electronic Medical Records Initiative.
'Part of
the future of medicine'
As “medically mobile” patients visit specialists for care, their records
fragment on computer systems that don’t talk to each other.
“It’s part of the future of medicine to have these kinds of technologies that make life simpler for the patient,” Ellis said. Pushing for the strongest encryption algorithms to ensure hackers can’t nab medical data as information transfers from chip to reader to secure database, will help address privacy concerns, he said.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday announced $139 million in grants to help make real President Bush’s push for electronic health records for most Americans within a decade.
William A. Pierce, an HHS spokesman, could not say whether VeriChip and its accompanying secure database of medical records fit within that initiative.
“Exactly what those technologies are is still to be sorted out,” Pierce said. “It all has to respect and comport with the privacy rules.”
Applied Digital gave away scanners to a few hundred animal shelters and veterinary clinics when it first entered the pet market 15 years ago. Now, 50,000 such scanners have been sold.
To kickstart the chip’s use among humans, Applied Digital will provide $650 scanners for free at 200 of the nation’s trauma centers.
Implantation
costs $150 to $200
In pets, installing the chip runs about $50. For humans, the chip
implantation cost would be $150 to $200, said Angela Fulcher, an Applied
Digital spokeswoman.
Fulcher could not say whether the cost of data storage and encrypted transmission of medical information would be passed to providers.
Because the VeriChip is invisible, it’s also unclear how health care workers would know which unconscious patients to scan. Company officials say if the chip use becomes routine, scanning triceps for hidden chips would become second nature at hospitals.
Ultimately, the company hopes patients who suffer from such ailments as diabetes and Alzheimer’s or who undergo complex treatments, like chemotherapy, would have chips implanted. If the procedure proves as popular for use in humans as in pets, that could mean up to 1 million chips implanted in people. So far, just 1,000 people across the globe have had the devices implanted, very few of them in the United States.
The company’s chief executive officer, Scott R. Silverman, is one of a half dozen executives who had chips implanted. Silverman said chips implanted for medical uses could also be used for security purposes, like tracking employee movement through nuclear power plants.
Such security uses are rare in the United States.
Meanwhile, the chip has been used for pure whimsy: Club hoppers in Barcelona, Spain, now use the microchip to enter a VIP area and, through links to a different database, speed payment much like a smartcard.
Related Story
FDA approves use of implantable chip in patients to pass medical information to doctors
October 14th, 2004
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved an implantable computer chip that can pass a patient's medical details to doctors, speeding care.
VeriChips, radio frequency microchips the size of a grain of rice, have already been used to identify wayward pets and livestock. And nearly 200 people working in Mexico's attorney general's office have been implanted with chips to access secure areas containing sensitive documents.
Delray Beach, Fla.-based Applied Digital Solutions said it would give away $650 scanners to roughly 200 trauma centers around the nation to help speed its entry into the health care market.
A company spokesman would not say how much implanting chips would cost for humans, even though chips have been implanted in some, including Scott R. Silverman, the company's chief executive officer.
The company is targeting patients with diabetes, chronic cardiac conditions, Alzheimer's disease and those who undergo complex treatments like chemotherapy, said Dr. Richard Seelig, Applied Digital Solutions' vice president of medical applications.
It's the first time the FDA has approved medical use of the device, though in Mexico, more than 1,000 scannable chips have been implanted in patients. The chip's serial number pulls up the patients' blood type and other medical information.
With the pinch of a syringe, the microchip is inserted under the skin in a procedure that takes less than 20 minutes and leaves no stitches.
Silently and invisibly, the dormant chip stores a code -- similar to the identifying UPC code on products sold in retail stores -- that releases patient-specific information when a scanner passes over the chip.
At the doctor's office those codes stamped onto chips, once scanned, would reveal such information as a patient's allergies and prior treatments.
The FDA in October 2002 said that the agency
would regulate health care applications possible through VeriChip. Meanwhile,
the chip has been used for a number of security-related tasks as well as for
pure whimsy: Club hoppers in Barcelona, Spain, now use the microchip much like a
smartcard to speed drink orders and payment.
ELEVEN CHRISTIANS
ARRESTED, JAILED, AND CHARGED
UNDER HATE CRIMES LEGISLATION
October 14th, 2004
PHILADELPHIA - On Sunday, October
10, 2004, eleven Christians with the Philadelphia-based Repent America were
arrested, jailed, and charged under hate crimes legislation during an
evangelistic outreach at the annual "OutFest" homosexual pride event
held in the public streets of Philadelphia.
The six men and five women representing Repent America approached the event and
were immediately confronted with unlawful opposition by a group of homosexuals.
This group, the “Pink Angels”, was formed by homosexual attorney Chuck Volz,
a senior adviser to Philly Pride Presents, organizers of the annual OutFest
event which receives $22,500 yearly from the City of Philadelphia. The “Pink
Angels” blocked access to Repent America by forming a human chain, refusing to
allow the Christians to walk down the public sidewalk. Police intervened shortly
thereafter, escorting Repent America through the human blockade.
While on the public sidewalk and street inside the event, Repent America began
to open-air preach with the use of Scripture banners, and to distribute Gospel
literature, as members of the "Pink Angels" blew loud whistles and
carried large signs alongside the Christians to block their message and their
access to the event attendees, while others screamed obscenities. The police
refused to take action as the Christians were continuously followed, obstructed,
and harassed.
Repent America obeyed all laws, and even the unlawful requests, to move by the
Philadelphia Civil Affairs police officers in an effort of cooperation.
Regardless of Repent America’s compliance, Chief James Tiano, head of the
Civil Affairs Unit, without warning, ordered the arrests of the Christians and
hauled them off to jail, where they spent 21 hours, before being released the
following day. Ten Christians were individually charged with three felonies and
five misdemeanors, while a teenager with the group was charged with a
misdemeanor.
“This is one of the most remarkable and unlawful actions by police that I have
ever witnessed. Their blatant disregard of the law by allowing hecklers to
impede our way, block our message, and then arrest us, is inexcusable,
especially by police officers who are specially trained to protect civil
rights,” stated Michael Marcavage, director of Repent America. “Christians
are now being labeled as ‘haters’ and any speech that homosexuals perceive
to be intimidating, such as our Christian witness at OutFest, makes them a prime
target for ‘hate crimes legislation’,” Marcavage continued.
The three felonies and five misdemeanors include: Criminal Conspiracy (Felony),
Possession of Instruments of Crime (Misdemeanor), Reckless Endangerment of
Another Person (Misdemeanor), Ethnic Intimidation (Felony), Riot (Felony),
Failure to Disperse (Misdemeanor), Disorderly Conduct (Misdemeanor), and
Obstructing Highways (Misdemeanor). “We are clearly ‘not guilty’ of these
crimes, and with the help of our video footage, we shall be vindicated of these
trumped up charges,” Marcavage concluded.
The Christians are scheduled to be arraigned on October 18, 2004 at 8:00AM in
the Philadelphia Criminal Justice Center.
EU TO UNVEIL PLAN TO HELP PALESTINIAN STATE
October 13, 2004
The EU Observer reports: “The European Union is set to produce a plan to ensure the viability of a Palestinian state, based on 1967 borders, it has emerged.
In a bid to step up the EU's engagement in the region, the plan is set to focus on reconstruction as well as ensuring security is brought to the territories.
It will also set out the need for holding free and fair elections.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who is a former EU envoy to the Middle East, said that it is hoped the plan would be adopted in November at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, according to reports.
The move follows deep unease in Europe over the lack of progress in implementing the EU, US, UN and Russian backed ‘Road Map’ for peace and a response to Israel's plans to withdraw from Gaza.
‘We want to show the will to start moving and commit ourselves to the situation in the Middle East’, Mr. Moratinos told a press conference…” View Original Article
NUCLEAR ITEMS MISSING IN IRAQ
October 12, 2004
The Guardian UK reports: “Equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons have disappeared from Iraq, the UN's nuclear watchdog warned yesterday.
Satellite imagery and investigations of nuclear sites in Iraq have caused alarm at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The agency found that in some cases entire buildings housing high-precision nuclear equipment had been dismantled; equipment that could be used to make a bomb, such as high-strength aluminum, had vanished from open storage areas, the agency said.
In a report to the UN security council yesterday, the IAEA's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, said the agency ‘continues to be concerned about the widespread and apparently systematic dismantlement that has taken place at sites previously relevant to Iraq's nuclear program and sites previously subject to ongoing monitoring and verification by the agency’.
Before the war, the buildings had been monitored and tagged with IAEA seals to keep tabs on their function and content. But US authorities barred IAEA inspectors from returning to Iraq after the war began in March 2003, instead deploying US teams in an unsuccessful search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
Mr. ElBaradei has therefore relied largely on satellite imagery in the latest report. IAEA teams were allowed into Iraq in June 2003 to investigate reports of widespread looting of storage rooms at the main nuclear complex, at Tuwaitha, and in August to take inventory of ‘several tones’ of natural uranium in storage nearby.
Anti-proliferation agreements mean the US occupying authorities and now the Iraqi interim government were responsible for informing the IAEA if they moved or exported any of that material or equipment.
The IAEA said it had received no such reports…” View Original Article
ISRAEL DOES NOT RULE OUT MORE SINAI STRIKES
October 11, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Israel has warned of additional Al Qaida-aligned strikes in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
Israeli officials said the Oct. 7 bombings against Israeli tourists in Sinai have not reduced the danger of additional strikes. They said the network that planned, financed and executed the attacks remains at large.
‘I recommend that Israeli citizens who are still in Sinai return as quickly as possible,'' Dan Arditi, head of the Counter-Terrorism Command in the office of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said. ‘The attacks don't reduce, even in the slightest, the risk that this will happen again.’
Officials said the network that carried out last week's strike could be separate from a plot reported by the Israeli government in September. On Sept. 9, Israel warned nationals to leave Sinai, saying the intelligence community received information of an insurgency plot…” View Original Article
NORTH KOREA THREATENS WAR OVER POSSIBLE SANCTIONS
October 11, 2004
Voice of America News reports: “North Korea has warned that any attempt by the United Nations to impose sanctions on the Stalinist state would spark a war.
The state-run Korean Central New Agency said Monday that Pyongyang ‘would promptly and resolutely react to sanctions with self-defensive war deterrent force.’
Last month U.S. officials suggested Washington might bring North Korea to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions if it continues to boycott talks on the country's nuclear weapons program.
Pyongyang did not attend a fourth round of six-party talks scheduled to open in September in Beijing, citing what it called Washington's ‘hostile policy’ towards North Korea and reports of secret nuclear experiments in South Korea…” View Original Article
AL QAIDA SAID TO LAUNCH MASSIVE ATTACK ON ISRAEL
October 10, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Al Qaida was believed to have launched a series of massive attacks on Israeli targets.
Two vacation sites packed with Israelis were bombed on late Thursday in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. One target was the Taba Hilton Hotel, near the southern Israeli port of Eilat. A beach packed with Israelis was bombed farther south along the Sinai coast.
At least 26 people were said to have been killed and more than 120 injured in the two attacks. Twenty-four of the casualties -- including seven Egyptians -- were reported in Taba. Officials said nearly 30 people believed to have been in the hotel were missing.
Officials said the Taba hotel was destroyed in two nearly simultaneous bombings. They said a car bomb exploded outside the hotel and a woman suicide bomber blew herself up in the lobby…” View Original Article
EU DRIVING LICENSE AGREED
October 9, 2004
The EU Observer reports: “Drivers all around the EU will soon have the same driving license, after ministers of transport agreed to standardize the 110 different models currently circulating around the union.
The new cards will be plastic and may eventually contain a microchip, reports Belgian daily La Libre Belgique.
Drivers will have to renew this license every ten years, but will not be required to take another driving test.
Holders of the ‘old’ licenses are allowed to keep these indefinitely.
The Commission wants to standardize the licenses to help easy identification of drivers…” View Original Article
ASSAD OFFERING TO MAKE PEACE WITH ISRAEL
October 8, 2004
Ha’aretz reports: “Syrian President Bashar Assad is offering to make peace with Israel and says he is ready to cooperate with the United States in stabilizing Iraq, a former senior State Department official said Wednesday.
‘Something is going on in Syria and it is time for us to pay attention,’ said Martin Indyk, assistant secretary of state for the Near East and U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Clinton administration.
In a three-hour meeting with the Syrian president last month in Damascus, Indyk said he detected a ‘clear change’ in Assad's views on a number of fronts.
On peacemaking, Assad offered to hold talks with Israel without preconditions, Indyk said, and had made several overtures to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that the latter rebuffed.
In the past, Indyk said, Syria had insisted that any peace talks should resume where they left off during the Clinton administration - with Israel offering to give up all of the Golan Heights, a strategic area Israel won in the 1967 Mideast war.
And, Indyk said, Assad had dropped a demand that Israel reach an agreement with the Palestinians before Israel could resume negotiations with Syria…” View Original Article
MARS ROVER FINDS MORE EVIDENCE OF PAST WATER
October 8, 2004
Agency France-Presse reports: “The Mars rover Opportunity has found new evidence of past existence of water on the Red Planet, NASA said.
Opportunity keeps finding new clues of past water as it continues probing Mars, said mission scientists at the US space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The new discoveries increase the possibility that the area around the ‘Endurance’ crater, which Opportunity explored, was once submerged before drying out.
Some rocks appear to have become wet a second time after a meteorite hit the planet, creating the crater, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.
The flat rocks, dubbed ‘Escher,’ were found inside and outside Endurance, which is the size of a stadium.
Opportunity and its twin rover Spirit landed on Mars early this year on a mission to search for signs of past life.
The discovery of evidence of water in different areas of Mars has bolstered the case that life may have existed on the planet…” View Original Article
October 7, 2004
WorldNetDaily.com reports: “A little-known federal agency is planning a new monitoring program by which the government would track every car on the road by using onboard transceivers.
The agency, the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, is part of the Department of Transportation. According to an extensive report in the Charlotte, N.C., Creative Loafing, the agency doesn't respond to public inquiries about its activity.
According to the report, cutting-edge tracking technology will be used by government transportation management centers to monitor every aspect of transportation. Under the plan, not only will movement be monitored but it also will be archived in massive databases for future use.
The paper reports a group of car manufacturers, technology companies and government interests have worked toward implementing the project for 13 years.
States the Creative Loafing report:
‘The only way for people to evade the national transportation tracking system they're creating will be to travel on foot. Drive your car, and your every movement could be recorded and archived. The federal government will know the exact route you drove to work, how many times you braked along the way, the precise moment you arrived – and that every other Tuesday you opt to ride the bus.The agency's website says its purpose is to ‘use advanced technology to improve the efficiency and safety of our nation's surface transportation system.’…” View Original Article‘They'll know you're due for a transmission repair and that you've neglected to fix the ever-widening crack that resulted from a pebble dinging your windshield.’
RFID DRIVER'S LICENSES DEBATED
October 7, 2004
Wired.com reports: “Some federal and state government officials want to make state driver's licenses harder to counterfeit or steal, by adding computer chips that emit a radio signal bearing a license holder's unique, personal information.
In Virginia, where several of the 9/11 hijackers obtained driver's licenses, state legislators Wednesday will hear testimony about how radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags may prevent identity fraud and help thwart terrorists using falsified documents to move about the country.
Privacy advocates will argue that the radio tags will also make it easy for the government to spy on its citizens and exacerbate identity theft, one of the problems the technology is meant to relieve.
Virginia is among the first states to explore the idea of creating a smart driver's license, which may eventually use any combination of RFID tags and biometric data, such as fingerprints or retinal scans.
‘Nine of the 19 9/11 terrorists obtained their licenses illegally in Virginia, and that was quite an embarrassment,’ said Virginia General Assembly delegate Kathy Byron, chairwoman of a subcommittee looking into the use of so-called smart driver's licenses, which may include RFID technology.
The biometric data would make it harder for an individual to use a stolen or forged driver's license for identification. The RFID tags would make the licenses a ‘contact-less’ technology, verifying IDs more efficiently, and making lines at security checkpoints move quicker.
Because information on RFID tags can be picked up from many feet away, licenses would not have to be put directly into a reader device. If there was any suspicion that a person was not who he claimed to be, ID checkers could take him aside for fingerprinting or a retinal scan.
States need to adopt technologies that can ensure a driver's license holder is who he says he is, said Byron.
Federal legislators may also require states to comply with uniform ‘smart card’ standards, making state driver's licenses into national identification cards that could be read at any location throughout the country. The RFID chips on driver's licenses would at a minimum transmit all of the information on the front of a driver's license. They may also eventually transmit fingerprint and other uniquely identifiable information to reader devices…” View Original Article
UN SIGNS PACT WITH NEW WORLD COURT OPPOSED BY U.S.
October 7, 2004
Reuters reports: “The United Nations signed a cooperation agreement on Monday with the new International Criminal Court, despite objections to the tribunal from the United States.
The pact that would encourage ‘greater cooperation and consultation’ on administration and judicial matters was signed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Judge Phillipe Kirsch of Canada, the court's president.
The 191-member U.N. General adopted a resolution last month approving the agreement. But in a nod to the Bush administration, the assembly's resolution says that the world body would be reimbursed by nations supporting the court for any expenses occurred.
Some 97 countries, including the entire European Union, have ratified the 1998 statute creating the court. The last three nations to ratify two weeks ago were Burundi, Liberia and Guyana.
The Bush administration is bitterly opposed to the new court and rescinded former President Bill Clinton's signature to the tribunal's statutes, arguing that it would expose U.S. soldiers and officials to frivolous law suits.
But supporters of the court say the ICC steps in only when a country is unwilling or unable to investigate, making it highly unlikely U.S. citizens would be targeted.
The court, based at The Hague in the Netherlands, is the first permanent world tribunal set up to prosecute individuals for war crimes, genocide and other gross human rights abuses…” View Original Article
IRAN CLAIMS CAPABILITY OF 2,000 KM-RANGE MISSILE
October 7, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Iran has reported a breakthrough in its intermediate-range missile program.
For the first time, Iran has claimed a capability to develop and produce a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers. The breakthrough was said to have been part of the enhanced Shihab-3 program, also known as the Shihab-4.
‘Now we have the power to launch a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers,’ former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a leading aide to Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, said. ‘And experts know that once a country has made such a step, all further steps are accessible.’
Israeli and U.S. officials said the reference was to Iran's program to develop a series of multi-stage, intermediate- and long-range missiles. The officials said Iran was planning to assemble the Shihab-5 missile, with a range of 5,500 kilometers and the intercontinental Shihab-6, with a range of up to 10,000 kilometers…” View Original Article
PLUTONIUM: RISING TERROR THREAT
October 7, 2004
The Christian Science Monitor reports: “The biggest threat facing the United States - and the world - is the spread of nuclear material to rogue states and terrorists. So say terrorism experts. Both major American presidential candidates concurred in last week's televised debate.
So why is the US moving plutonium from military to less secure civilian control? And why, critics ask, is it embarking on research programs that teach other nations how to use plutonium in nuclear power plants after a quarter-century of opposing such moves? That's what Tom Clements wants to know.
Lurking beside major highways that cut through the heart of France, Mr. Clements and other antinuclear activists from Greenpeace usually watch for unmarked white trucks carrying plutonium-based fuel to French nuclear power plants. Their aim is to dramatize how easily terrorists could spot the trucks and steal their contents. This week, however, they hope to track more dangerous quarry: a convoy laden with about 275 pounds of plutonium oxide shipped from the US. Unlike nuclear fuel for power plants, which terrorists would have to convert to make a bomb, this plutonium is weapons grade - enough dark, coarse-grained powder that could be used immediately to make 15 to 20 atom bombs the size of the one dropped on Nagasaki in World War II.
Knowing terrorists are seeking nuclear material, nations have made strides to secure bomb-grade highly enriched uranium (HEU). But they have paid far less attention to an alternative: plutonium.
The US shipment of weapons-grade plutonium to France, its first overseas, is not only a security threat but also clouds America's nonproliferation message, critics say. Moreover, it focuses attention on plutonium from another source - nuclear power plants. This ‘separated’ plutonium can be converted into a weapon and poses a threat comparable to HEU, most experts say.
‘The big risk we face with separated plutonium is from theft by terrorists at a factory making reactor fuel - maybe an inside job,’ says David Albright, a researcher at the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a Washington think tank. ‘You always have to worry about the physical protection of plutonium. Nations always tell you their protection is good. But it may not be enough.’…” View Original Article
'Hate-crimes'
bill to muzzle Christians?
House urges committee to include 'sexual orientation' in federal law
On Sept. 28, the House voted 213-186 to pass a procedural motion encouraging a conference committee to include the hate-crimes legislation in the final version of the Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4200).
Employees
urged to support homosexual agenda
Bank directs workers to display rainbow triangle to combat 'homophobia'
October
6th, 2004
The largest bank in Canada has directed its employees to "be supportive" of "gay, lesbian and bisexual issues" and to show that support by displaying the homosexual movement's rainbow triangle symbol in the workplace.
The Royal Bank of Canada made the statements in the first edition of a new newsletter called "Rainbow Space." [.pdf version] The publication is meant to highlight "the importance of sexual preference as one of RBC's primary diversity elements." In making the appeal to its employees, the bank urged them to display a rainbow-colored triangle sticker on their "desk, cubicle or office."
Israel presses Gaza offensive, Hamas threatens to step up rocket fire
October 6th, 2004
Israel's deadly offensive in northern Gaza entered its second week with the government vowing to press on until Palestinian rocket fire stopped and with militant chiefs pledging to intensify their attacks. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's closest advisor said the premier's aim was to sideline an internationally drafted peace roadmap but his office later put out a statement saying he remained committed to the US-backed blueprint.
A Thai worker and six Palestinians, three of them militants, were the latest victims of the massive Israeli campaign after Washington vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for a halt to the offensive, the Israeli army and Palestinian medics said. Two fighters of the largest militant group, Hamas, were shot dead by Israeli troops as they attempted to infiltrate the Kfar Darom settlement in the southern Gaza Strip. A third militant died when an explosive charge he was carrying went off prematurely. The Thai migrant labourer was employed on the settlement and died during exchanges of fire between the militants and troops.
Earlier, medics said three Palestinians were killed in Israeli tank strikes in the northern Gaza Strip overnight. Twenty Palestinians were reported wounded, two of them young women who were said to be in serious condition. The deaths brought to 88 the number of Palestinians killed since the army launched its offensive against the northern Gaza Strip on September 28 to forge a buffer zone to keep Palestinians out of rocket range of southern Israel. But Hamas remained defiant Wednesday, warning it would "continue and increase rocket firing" on Israel" and would "not stop launching rockets even if Israel leaves the northern Gaza Strip".
"The resistance will not stop and, whether it wants to or not, the enemy will have to leave northern Gaza under rocket fire," masked militants from Hamas's military wing -- the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades -- told reporters in the town of Beit Lahia. They said they were even developing a longer-range rocket that could strike deeper inside Israel. Israeli officials were unrepentant about their onslaught, despite the mounting international criticism, which saw 11 countries support the critical draft resolution Tuesday night and three abstain, with Washington alone in expressing opposition.
"The operation will continue as long as necessary, until our forces can guarantee that there will be no more firing onto communities in Gaza and across the border," a senior government official told AFP, asking not be identified. "To end the operation, the condition is clear and unequivocal -- the firing on the Gaza Strip communities and Sderot must stop." Sharon's top aide, Dov Weisglass, sparked controversy by saying in a newspaper interview that the goal of the premier's Gaza pullout plan was to undermine the US-backed peace roadmap.
"The significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process," Weisglass told the Israeli daily Haaretz. "And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the (Palestinian) refugees, the (final) borders and Jerusalem," he said, referring to steps promised in the blueprint. Sharon's office later put out a statement, saying the prime minister "supports the roadmap, the only plan liable to help progress towards a viable political agreement".
In justifying its veto at the Security Council, Washington pointed to the draft resolution's failure to refer to Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel, Sharon's pretext for the incursion. US ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth said the text "lacks balance and credibility" because it "doesn't mention even one of the 450 Qassam rocket attacks launched against Israel over the past two years."
The proposed resolution had called, among other things, for "the immediate cessation of all military operations in the area of northern Gaza and the withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces from that area." Hamas charged the veto served to show that the US administration was "a partner in the Israeli aggression". In other unrest Wednesday, a Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli army fire in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem. And an Israeli helicopter gunship fired two rockets on a metal workshop in the Jabaliya area, lightly wounding two people, witnesses said. The army confirmed the attack on the site, which had been targeted in the past, saying it was a Hamas arms factory.
Is this one of Saddam's mobile bio-weapons labs?
A trailer found by the U.S. in Northern Iraq last year likely was used by Saddam Hussein's regime as a mobile biological weapons laboratory, and not to fill hydrogen balloons as some in Britain and the U.S. have charged, a view supported by exclusive photos obtained by WorldNetDaily that for the first time offer inside views of the trailer components.
 Brewing canister |
Kurdish forces seized the trailer in April 2003 at a checkpoint near Mosul in northern Iraq. At the time, the unit was hailed as the closest U.S. forces may have come to finding a "smoking gun" in their search for weapons of mass destruction inside Iraq.
A general photo of the outside of the trailer was released to the media.
But initial swab tests of the mobile unit, which seemed to have been washed thoroughly with a strong decontaminating substance, yielded no traces of biological or chemical agents, leading many critics to conclude the trailer could have been used for legitimate medical purposes.
Some in British and American intelligence groups charged the trailers were used for the production of hydrogen to fill artillery and weather balloons.
However, photos obtained by WorldNetDaily from a U.S. Army source in Iraq offer a rare glimpse inside the trailer, which indicates the most likely use for the mobile unit was the production of biological agents and not hydrogen. More...
HAMAS SEEKS TO DEVELOP LONG-RANGE KASSAM
October 5, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Hamas said it has been developing a long-range Kassam-class missile.
Hamas sources said the Islamic insurgency group has been working on a so-called Kassam-4 missile. The missile was meant to have a range of 17 kilometers and capable of striking the Israeli city of Ashkelon from the northern Gaza Strip.
In 2003, Kassam missiles fired from the edge of the Gaza Strip landed in the industrial zone in southern Ashkelon. Those missiles were said to have traveled around 10 kilometers.
Hamas, believed to have up to 200 Kassams in the Gaza Strip, has claimed a capability of developing missiles to a range of 17-20 kilometers. The group has threatened to begin targeting Ashkelon…” View Original Article
UN Signs Pact with New World Court Opposed by U.S.
October 5th, 2004
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United
Nations signed a cooperation agreement on Monday with the new International
Criminal Court, despite objections to the tribunal from the United States.
The pact that would encourage "greater cooperation and
consultation" on administration and judicial matters was signed by U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Judge Phillipe Kirsch of Canada, the court's
president.
The 191-member U.N. General adopted a resolution last month approving the
agreement. But in a nod to the Bush administration, the assembly's resolution
says that the world body would be reimbursed by nations supporting the court for
any expenses occurred.
Some 97 countries, including the entire European Union, have ratified the 1998
statute creating the court. The last three nations to ratify two weeks ago were
Burundi, Liberia and Guyana.
The Bush administration is bitterly opposed to the new court and rescinded former President Bill Clinton's signature to the tribunal's statutes, arguing that it would expose U.S. soldiers and officials to frivolous law suits.
But supporters of the court say the ICC steps in only when a country is unwilling or unable to investigate, making it highly unlikely U.S. citizens would be targeted.
The court, based at The Hague in the Netherlands, is the first permanent world tribunal set up to prosecute individuals for war crimes, genocide and other gross human rights abuses.
U.S.-Iraqi Forces Launch Major Offensive
October 4th, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq - More than 3,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major operation Tuesday against insurgent strongholds just south of Baghdad, their second mission in five days to wrest control from militants whose attacks threaten national elections seen as crucial to stabilizing this turbulent country.
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The operation in Babil province — an area notorious for kidnappings and ambushes and home to the fabled, ancient city of Babylon — follows last week's U.S.-Iraqi drive to oust insurgent forces from Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.
The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Iraqi forces went into action after a string of bombings set off clashes Tuesday between U.S. troops and gunmen west of Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul, and as the discovery of five beheaded bodies over two days indicated the pace of such grisly killings was also surging.
The Marines and Iraqis punched their way across the Euphrates River, rounded up 160 suspects, seized a suspected training camp and took control of a major bridge, the U.S. command said. The bridge, spanning the Euphrates, is believed to be a favored corridor linking insurgent areas around Baghdad, Fallujah and towns farther south.
The area in which they were operating was an estimated 40 to 45 miles northwest of ancient Babylon. The capital of Babil province is Hillah, about 65 miles south of Baghdad. The provincial capital sits near the Euphrates in a belt of rich agricultural land between that river and the nearby Tigris.
The U.S. military lost significant areas of Iraq (news - web sites) to insurgents after Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s ouster. In remarks published Tuesday, L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. civilian official in Iraq at the time, said "we never had enough troops on the ground."
U.S. and Iraqi forces are trying to curb the mounting insurgency in order to hold national elections throughout the country in January. Some U.S. officials have expressed doubt that balloting will be possible in areas that have slipped from Iraqi government control. More...
Locusts 'heading to NW Africa'
October 5th, 2004
A single locusts can eat its own weight
in fresh crop each day
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Dense swarms of the insects are already flying into west, north and north-eastern Niger, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
It warns they have invaded Libya and may reach Morocco and Tunisia. Up to four million hectares of land are estimated to be infested by locusts in West Africa.
Gathering swarms
So far, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Senegal have been the worst-affected countries. But the FAO warns that the new swarms will begin to gather in the coming weeks. As vegetation dries up at the end of the rainy season, experts predict the locusts will leave the semi-desert of the Sahel area and head for Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.
"They move to greener pastures," the FAO's Keith Cressman told Reuters. He said the arrival of swarms in Libya was a warning to the rest of the region. "It probably is the first sign of this shift in population."
Several swarms of immature locusts had already invaded southwest Libya near Ghat and the Algerian border over the past week the FAO said in a statement.
Sierra Leone gay activist killed
October 5th, 2004
New York-based lobby group Human Rights Watch has urged Sierra Leone's authorities to find those who brutally killed a leading gay rights activist.FannyAnn Eddy, 30, was repeatedly raped, stabbed and had her neck broken by people who broke into her office. Earlier this year, she told a UN conference that gays and lesbians faced "constant harassment and violence" in Sierra Leone.
She founded the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association in 2002. Homosexual acts are illegal in Sierra Leone, according to Amnesty International. "FannyAnn Eddy was a person of extraordinary bravery and integrity, who literally put her life on the line for human rights," said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Project at Human Rights Watch.
"Homophobic attacks go unpunished by authorities, further encouraging their discriminatory and violent treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people," Ms Eddy told the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. "The authorities in Sierra Leone must investigate this crime fairly and fully," said Mr Long. "They must send a message to a frightened lesbian and gay community that violence against them will not go unpunished."
Head of Anglican Church urges acceptance of homosexuality
October 4th, 2004
TONY EASTLEY: In what's tipped to
be one of the most divisive general synods in the history of the Anglican Church
in Australia, the Head of the Church, Dr Peter Carnley, has urged followers to
soften their views towards homosexuals.
Progressives are hoping to pave the way towards blessing same sex unions and
ordaining gay people in the church.
The Right Reverend Robert Forsyth is the Bishop of South Sydney, and a supporter
of the conservative evangelical views of the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney,
Peter Jensen. Bishop Forsyth has been speaking to AM's Nick Grimm.
NICK GRIMM: Bishop Robert Forsyth, this is shaping up to be quite a
controversial General Synod of the Anglican Church isn't it?
ROBERT FORSYTH: It's certainly got some very important issues on it – women
bishops, the nature of homosexual relationships. Although the most important
issue, I think, is the whole question about the Church changing and growing to
have mission to the world in the name of Christ. That's probably the most
important issue. But there is controversy as well.
NICK GRIMM: What is your reaction to the opening remarks made by the Anglican
Primate, Peter Carnley?
ROBERT FORSYTH: As I understand it, he says the issue has already been solved
– as long as you're faithful, sexual relationships, whether it's homosexual or
heterosexual makes no difference, as I understand what he's written. Now I think
that is sadly contrary to scripture and to the will of Christ. More...
U.S. TO BUILD URBAN WARFARE FACILITY FOR IRAQ
October 4, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “The U.S. military plans to build an urban warfare facility for operations in Iraq.
Officials said the facility would be used to train members of the Marine Corps for a tour in Iraq. They said the facility would include urban warfare training for Marine units.
The Defense Department has selected Ballistics Technology to build the urban warfare facility. The Pentagon has awarded the Wilmington, Del.-based company a $6.8 million contract to train Marines in a simulation of the battlefield in Iraq.
A Pentagon statement said the contract was part of the range modernization and transformation program to increase live fire training capability and effectiveness at the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command, based at Twenty-nine Palms, Calif. Under the contract, Ballistics Technology would build a Military Operations on Urban Terrain training complex…” View Original Article
Israel, Palestinians Seek Deal to End Gaza Fighting
October 4th, 2004
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) are trying to work out a deal to end the army's Gaza offensive in return for stopping militants firing rockets into the Jewish state, Israeli security sources said Tuesday.
Security officials on both sides have begun initial contacts expected to accelerate in coming days, the sources said.
The new bid to halt the fighting comes after Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said Washington hoped Israeli would quickly end its massive military campaign in the northern Gaza Strip (news - web sites) without expanding the operation. The sources said the aim of the discussions is for the army to pull back its forces while the Palestinian Authority takes steps to stop Hamas rocket fire that triggered Israel's biggest offensive in the territory in four years of conflict.
A senior security source said Israeli officials remained skeptical of the ability and willingness of Palestinian security services to confront Hamas militants. "Their record in this area is not good," the source said.
Israel launched its Gaza campaign after a Hamas rocket attack killed two Israeli toddlers in a border town on Wednesday. Since then, 67 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed in and around northern Gaza.
Official contacts between the two sides to end the fighting appears to go against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s strategy of avoiding talks with Palestinian Authority officials and taking a go-it-alone approach
UN Signs Pact with New World Court Opposed by U.S.
October 4th, 2004
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United
Nations signed a cooperation agreement on Monday with the new International
Criminal Court, despite objections to the tribunal from the United States.
The pact that would encourage "greater
cooperation and consultation" on administration and judicial matters was
signed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Judge Phillipe Kirsch of Canada,
the court's president.
The 191-member U.N. General adopted a resolution
last month approving the agreement. But in a nod to the Bush administration, the
assembly's resolution says that the world body would be reimbursed by nations
supporting the court for any expenses occurred.
Some 97 countries, including the entire European
Union, have ratified the 1998 statute creating the court. The last three nations
to ratify two weeks ago were Burundi, Liberia and Guyana.
UN USED FOR MISSILE ATTACKS ON ISRAEL
October 4, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “The United Nations was shown to have been used to help Hamas gunners in missile attacks against Israel.
Israel has released video footage of Kassam-class, short-range missiles being loaded into an ambulance of the UN Relief and Works Agency in the northern Gaza Strip. The footage, taken last week, showed the ambulance with the Kassams driving off, purportedly to deliver the weapons to Hamas gunners.
Israel has demanded a UN investigation of the incident. Israeli officials said the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has also called for the dismissal of UNRWA commissioner-general Peter Hansen.
Officials said Israel was preparing to send a letter to UN secretary-general Kofi Annan that would demand the dismissal of Hansen. Israeli officials said Hansen had been involved in the use of UN ambulances by Palestinian insurgents…” View Original Article
DESPITE OFFENSIVE, HAMAS CONTINUES ATTACKS
OCTOBER 3, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Despite a major military offensive, Hamas continues to launch missile attacks against Israel.
Hamas gunners, in cooperation with other Palestinian insurgency groups, have succeeded in exacting lethal attacks by Kassam-class short-range missiles against Israeli communities. On Sept. 29, two Israeli children were killed in a missile attack on Sderot during the start of Tabernacles. Another 15 people were injured.
On Thursday, two more Kassam missiles were fired toward Sderot. One fell in an industrial zone and the other in an open field. There were no injuries reported.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has ordered a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip. Officials said the Cabinet approved a proposal by Mofaz to expand the area of military deployment in the northern Gaza Strip in an effort to halt Kassam missile strikes…” View Original Article
Kerry pushes 'GLBT'
bumper stickers
Campaign website shows support for homosexual activism
October 2nd, 2004
Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign offers "GLBT" bumper stickers, a demonstration of his support for "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered" activism. The item can be purchased on the campaign website for $2.
 |
As WND reported, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute has declared the Edwards-Kerry presidential ticket the most "gay-supportive" in the history of the U.S.
The campaign website boasts Kerry has a 100 percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest homosexual-rights group.
"John Kerry and John Edwards will work to support civil unions, prevent hate crimes, end discrimination, increase HIV/AIDS funding, and will protect Gay and Lesbian families," the website says.
U.S. Warns of Big Mount St. Helens Blast
October 2nd, 2004
SEATTLE - Government scientists raised the alert level Saturday for Mount St. Helens after its second steam eruption in two days was followed by a powerful tremor. They said the next blast was imminent or in progress, and could threaten life and property in the remote area near the volcano.
Hundreds of visitors at the building closest to the volcano — Johnston Ridge Observatory five miles away — were asked to leave. They went quickly to their cars and drove away, with some relocating several miles north to Coldwater Ridge Visitors Center.
The volcano alert of Mount St. Helens was raised to Level 3, which "indicates we feel an eruption is imminent, or is in progress," said U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) geologist Tom Pierson from the observatory.
The growing consensus among scientists is that new magma is probably entering the volcano's upper levels, possibly bringing with it volatile gases that could lead to eruptions, said Bill Steele at the University of Washington's seismic laboratory in Seattle.
EXPLOSIONS ROCK NORTHEASTERN INDIA
October 2, 2004
Voice of America News reports: “Two explosions in northeastern India have killed at least 20 people and injured scores more. The blasts took place in the remote northeastern region of Nagaland, home to a long-running separatist conflict.
The first blast, on a train platform crowded with passengers, sent body parts flying. Minutes later, another explosion went off in a nearby marketplace, filled with shoppers enjoying a national holiday marking the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, who led the drive for India's independence.
Police investigating the attacks say, that, so far, no group has claimed responsibility for the carnage.
Both blasts took place in the city of Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland state. The remote region is home to dozens of anti-government groups. The largest of them, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, has fought a long running campaign for independence.
The group signed a cease-fire agreement with the government in 1997, but a breakaway faction was not part of that deal…” View Original Article
ISRAEL LAUNCHES MAJOR OPERATION IN GAZA
September 30, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Israel's military has launched another major operation against Palestinian missile facilities.
About 30 Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers as well as several hundred troops entered the Jabalia refugee camp north of Gaza City on late Tuesday. Palestinian sources said the Israeli ground force, supported by AH-64A Apache attack helicopters and unmanned air vehicles, searched for Kassam-class short-range missiles and production facilities.
The sources reported steady Palestinian fire against the Israeli force. They said Hamas fired Battar anti-tank missiles toward Israeli combat vehicles and military outposts.
A Hamas operative was reported to have been killed in the clash. A Kassam squad was also struck in an Apache missile attack near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun…” View Original Article
CHINA ACCUSES TAIWAN OF PROVOKING WAR WITH MISSILE THREAT
September 30, 2004
Voice of America News reports: “China lashed out at Taiwan after the island's prime minister said it would defend itself by firing missiles at Shanghai in the event of an attack by China.
Officials at China's Taiwan Affairs Office say the comments by Taiwan Prime Minister Yu Shyi-kun show that the island's leaders do not want peace.
Mr. Yu last week said Taiwan had the ability to strike China's financial hub, Shanghai, with missiles if the mainland attacks the island.
On Wednesday, Li Weiyi, a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office said the comments show that Taiwan's leaders are trying to create tension across the Taiwan Strait.
‘This kind of war-provoking action thoroughly exposes the Taiwan authorities attempt to seek independence through arms and its nature of faking peace while truly seeking independence,’ he said.
China has hundreds of missiles pointed at Taiwan, and is adding more. Civil war split the two sides in 1949, and since then, China has threatened to take back Taiwan by force if it makes moves toward formal independence.
Taiwan plans to purchase $18 billion of U.S. weapons it says will maintain a balance of power with China…” View Original Article
House Defeats Gay Marriage Ban Amendment
September 30th, 2004
WASHINGTON - The House emphatically rejected a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage Thursday, the latest in a string of conservative pet causes advanced by Republican leaders in the run-up to Election Day.
The vote was 227-186, 49 votes shy of the two-thirds needed for approval of an amendment that President Bush (news - web sites) backed but the Senate had previously scuttled.
"God created Adam and Eve, He didn't create Adam and Steve," said Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (news, bio, voting record), R-Md., on behalf of a measure that supporters said was designed to protect an institution as old as civilization itself.
Democrats countered that Republicans were motivated by election-year politics as much as anything, particularly since a Senate vote this year ended any immediate chance the amendment could be sent to the states for ratification. Whole Article
DOLLY SCIENTISTS' HUMAN CLONE BID
September 29, 2004
BBC News reports: “The scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep have formally applied for a license to clone human embryos to find a cure for motor neuron disease.
If granted, Professor Ian Wilmut's team at Edinburgh's Roslin Institute would clone cells from MND patients to see how the illness develops in an embryo.
The licensing body, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority granted a similar license in August.
The application has provoked criticism from pro-life campaigners.
Therapeutic cloning for research has been legal in the UK since 2001.
In August this year, scientists at the University of Newcastle were given permission to perform therapeutic cloning using human embryos for the first time.
They wanted to duplicate early stage embryos and extract stem cells from them which can be used for radical new treatments for a host of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes.
In comparison, Professor Wilmut wants to create cloned embryos with MND.
Professor Wilmut has stressed that his team has no intention of producing cloned babies, and said the diseased embryos would be destroyed after experimentation.
Professor Wilmut said: ‘I would emphasize that, at this time, our objective is to understand the disease’…” View Original Article
EGYPT LAUNCHES MAJOR MILITARY EXERCISE
September 29, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Egypt has launched a major military exercise with a NATO member.
Egyptian government sources said the military began the exercise on Sept. 26 along the Mediterranean coast near Alexandria. The sources said the three-week exercise was meant to include army and air force units.
The state-owned Al Ahram daily reported that the exercise included air and ground units from the Italian Army. The newspaper said 1,500 Italian troops were participating in the biannual exercise west of Alexandria.
The Egyptian sources said the military exercise was regarded as the highlight of Cairo's military cooperation with NATO during 2004. Egyptian military exercises with Western allies have dropped sharply over the last two years amid the U.S.-led war in Iraq, which has included several NATO members…” View Original Article
IRAQ LAUNCHES FIRST AIR FORCE EXERCISE
September 29, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Iraq has launched its first air force exercise.
Officials said the exercise was the first time the air force conducted operations without the direct participation of the U.S.-led coalition. For the last three months, Iraq's new military aircraft contained a Western trainer during flight.
The first Iraqi Air Force exercise, which took place on Sept. 15, tested the capabilities of the new Jordanian-origin Seeker light reconnaissance aircraft. Officials said the exercise lasted two hours and took place near Basra in southern Iraq.
The air force has procured two Seeker aircraft in the effort by the Iraqi military to protect southern oil fields and installations. Another six platforms were meant to be delivered over the next few weeks…” View Original Article
U.S. MILITARY STILL BELIEVES WMD IN SYRIA
September 27, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “The U.S. military continues to assess that the former Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq transferred much of its weapons of mass destruction arsenal to neighboring Syria.
U.S. officials said that U.S. Army Intelligence does not share the conclusion that Saddam had abandoned his WMD program before the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003. They said military intelligence has attributed the U.S. failure to find Iraqi WMD platforms or munitions to Saddam's transfer of these systems to Syria in late 2002 and early 2003.
Over the last year, U.S. Central Command has helped the Iraqi Survey Group in the search for WMD in Iraq. The group has wound down its activities in Iraq without any success.
‘The Iraqi Survey Group has yet to submit its final report,’ Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy chief of U.S. Central Command, said. ‘Besides, who knows what we will find in two years, who knows what was moved to countries like Syria. What we know for certain is that Saddam Hussain had carried out research into an array of weapons of mass destruction.’…” View Original Article
September 27, 2004
WorldNetDaily.com reports: “An Israeli minister is raising fears about the possibility the Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem could collapse on worshipers during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan next month, and he recommends limiting the number of people entering the Temple Mount.
Interior Security Minister Gideon Ezra warned that a damaged section of the 2,000-year-old eastern wall of the compound could come down on throngs of worshipers. More than 200,000 Muslims are expected to visit the compound for Ramadan services.
Ezra urged that work to strengthen the mosque plaza should start immediately or warned Israel would need to limit access during Ramadan for safety reasons.
Ezra's concerns echo a recent report by Israel's Technion Institute that found the eastern wall of the Temple Mount may cave in on an underground architectural support of the mount, known as the Solomon's Stables. The underground site, which was converted by the Islamic Wakf in the late 1990s into what is now the largest mosque in Israel, can accommodate up to 30,000 worshipers.
Ezra told Israeli public radio that ‘the roof of this structure is at risk of collapsing under the weight of the worshipers. ... Israel cannot take such a risk.’
Ezra said he doubted the problems could be fixed in time for Ramadan.
Israeli officials have said any structural catastrophe at the shrine would be blamed by the Islamic world on Israel, and could aggravate violence in the region…” View Original Article
IRAN CLAIMS SUCCESSFUL TEST OF STRATEGIC MISSILE
September 26, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Iran has claimed the successful test of an unidentified strategic missile believed to be the Shihab-3.
Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said the missile was fired during the Ashura-5 exercise in mid-September. He said that as a result of the success the missile has been introduced into military service.
‘This strategic missile was successfully test-fired during military exercises by the Revolutionary Guards and delivered to the armed forces,’ Shamkhani said in a report on Iranian television on Saturday.
Ashura-5 took place between Sept. 12 and Sept. 18 and marked the latest in a series of exercises in western Iran to bolster deterrence against a Western attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Earlier, Iranian officials said the Shihab-2 medium-range missile was launched during Ashura…” View Original Article
PALESTINIANS INCREASE ATTACKS IN GAZA
September 26, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Palestinian insurgents were said to have stepped up attacks against Israeli civilian and military installations in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli and Palestinian sources said a range of insurgency groups have joined forces to increase strikes on Israeli communities and military outposts in the Gaza Strip. They said the key groups in the offensive comprised the ruling Fatah movement and the Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad.
‘There is a flush of new weapons and money in the area, and this could be the reason for the upsurge,’ a Palestinian security source said.
The weapons have included Kassam-class short-range missiles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. The sources said the Palestinian weapons have been enhanced over the last few months…” View Original Article
MIDDLE EAST QUARTET LAMENTS LACK OF PROGRESS ON ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE
September 25, 2004
Voice of America News reports: “U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell convened Wednesday in New York with his counterparts from Russia, the European Union and the United Nations making up the informal Quartet on the Middle East. They said no significant progress has been achieved on their road map to Middle East peace.
The meeting at U.N. headquarters was the first for the Quartet since May, and a statement issued at the end of the 75-minute meeting described the Israeli-Palestinian situation as extremely difficult and said no significant progress has been achieved on the peace road map.
The Quartet partners, Mr. Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, European Union chief diplomat Javier Solana and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, ascribed blame to both of the Middle East parties.
They noted with deep concern that the Palestinians still lack an empowered prime minister and cabinet needed to fulfill the Palestinian Authority's road map obligations.
The expressed similar concern over the lack of action by Israel toward implementing its part of the road map, including a settlement freeze and the dismantling of settlement outposts put up since March, 2001.
Among other things, the Quartet also reiterated concerns expressed in May over the routing of Israel's West Bank separation barrier, though reaffirming their encouragement over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's intention to withdraw from all Gaza settlements and some in the West Bank.
Despite their dreary assessment, the Quartet partners pledged to remain engaged with the parties to achieve progress toward a just comprehensive and lasting settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict…”
RECRUITMENT INCREASES OF WOMEN BOMBERS
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Palestinian insurgency groups have stepped up their recruitment of women suicide bombers.
Israeli security sources said the ruling Fatah movement as well as Hamas and Islamic Jihad have increased efforts to recruit Palestinian women for suicide bombing missions in Israel. They said the recruitment has been most pronounced in the northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus.
‘There is an increase in the pool of women who have signed up for suicide attacks,’ an Israeli security source said.
On Wednesday, two Israeli police officers were killed and 15 civilians were injured when a Palestinian woman blew herself up near a hitch-hiking station in northern Jerusalem. Israeli officials said police prevented the woman, carrying a bomb of up to five kilograms, from entering the station, which would have resulted in much greater casualties…”
HIGH ALERT FOR YOM KIPPUR; GUARDS DEPLOYED AT SYNAGOGUES
September 25, 2004
Ha’aretz reports: “Security forces have raised their state of alert across the country in preparation for the Yom Kippur holiday, which begins at sundown Friday and lasts until Saturday night.
Thousands of policemen, soldiers and volunteers were deployed along the seam line. Security has also been beefed up in market places and in the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Security measures were also implemented in synagogues throughout the country, with security guards being placed near each and every synagogue.
Following a security briefing, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered the closure on the territories to remain in place at least until after Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar…”
IRANIAN ARMY TAKES DELIVERY OF NEW MISSILE
September 25, 2004
Voice of America News reports: “Iran's armed forces say they have taken delivery of a new 'strategic missile.'
State-run media quote Defense Minister Ali Shamkani as saying the new missile has an 'unprecedented range, destructive power, accuracy and launching time' that can meet all threats from both within the region and beyond.
He added that the new missile is not named for security reasons, but was successfully tested last week. However, he did not say whether it was domestically produced or purchased abroad.
It is not clear whether it is the Shahab III medium-range ballistic missile that Iran said it successfully tested in August. Experts believe that missile has a range far enough to hit Israel.
Only days ago, Israel said it was buying powerful new bombs from the United States capable of destroying nuclear facilities. Tehran has denied charges it is secretly developing nuclear weapons…”
September 23rd, 2004
Those who think that granting homosexuals the right to marry won`t affect them might want to reconsider in light of a recent National Public Radio broadcast about how instruction in gay-sex techniques is showing up in sex education classes in Massachusetts. What`s more, the report said activists are designing teacher-guides that will introduce homosexuality to children in kindergarten... Read on...
Two Die, 16 Hurt in Israel Suicide Blast
September 22nd, 2004
JERUSALEM - A Palestinian teenager blew herself up at a busy Jerusalem bus station Wednesday, killing two Israeli policemen who stopped her for a security check and wounding 16 bystanders in an attack that evaded Israel's clampdown on the West Bank for the Jewish holidays.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites), meanwhile, dropped a plan to evacuate 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) simultaneously at the beginning of next year, reverting to an earlier formula — a staged pullout in the summer of 2005.
That prompted Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) to say Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia — and not Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) — should be empowered to take control of Gaza. Arafat "is not able to act in this manner," Powell said Wednesday. Israel and the United States are boycotting Arafat, the head of the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites).
SUSPECTED NUKE BUNKERS SPOTTED IN IRAN
September 22, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “A U.S. research institute has released satellite photographs that detail suspected nuclear weapons testing facilities at an Iranian military base outside Teheran.
The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security has released photographs of the Iranian military base at Parchin where nuclear weapons activities were suspected of taking place. The seven satellite images show buildings where nuclear weapons components were suspected of being prepared for testing.
Parchin is located about 30 kilometers southeast of Teheran, and the Iranian government has asserted that the facility has long been used for the testing of chemical explosives. The International Atomic Energy Agency has requested access to inspect the site, operated by the Iranian Defense Industries Organization.
The U.S. institute, which contains leading nuclear experts and former officials, said Parchin could be converted to a nuclear weapons research and assembly facility. The institute said Parchin could also be used for testing nuclear explosives as well as missile and rocket delivery systems…”
SUSPECTED NUKE BUNKERS SPOTTED IN IRAN
September 22, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “A U.S. research institute has released satellite photographs that detail suspected nuclear weapons testing facilities at an Iranian military base outside Teheran.
The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security has released photographs of the Iranian military base at Parchin where nuclear weapons activities were suspected of taking place. The seven satellite images show buildings where nuclear weapons components were suspected of being prepared for testing.
Parchin is located about 30 kilometers southeast of Teheran, and the Iranian government has asserted that the facility has long been used for the testing of chemical explosives. The International Atomic Energy Agency has requested access to inspect the site, operated by the Iranian Defense Industries Organization.
The U.S. institute, which contains leading nuclear experts and former officials, said Parchin could be converted to a nuclear weapons research and assembly facility. The institute said Parchin could also be used for testing nuclear explosives as well as missile and rocket delivery systems…”
ROH, PUTIN AGAIN CALL ON N. KOREA TO CURB NUCLEAR WEAPONS DRIVE
September 22, 2004
Voice of America News reports: “Russian President Vladimir Putin and his South Korean counterpart President Roh Moo Hyun have reiterated calls for curbing North Korea's nuclear weapons drive and continuing the six-nation talks aimed at defusing the Korean nuclear crisis.
President Putin and South Korean President Roh emerged from several hours of talks at the Kremlin agreeing that North Korea must abandon its nuclear ambitions for the sake of peace and stability in Asia.
But the two leaders offered little detail on how they plan to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table alongside the United States, Japan, China, Russia and South Korea.
North Korea's elusive President Kim Jong-Il has long resisted relinquishing his nation's nuclear program, despite international pledges of security guarantees and economic aid. Three earlier rounds of multi-party talks failed to yield a breakthrough. But officials in Russia and South Korea remain hopeful that President Putin's personal relationship with the North Korean leader can somehow help gain some ground on the issue…”
IRAN WILL PURSUE NUCLEAR PROGRAM WITH OR WITHOUT IAEA INSPECTIONS
September 21, 2004
The International Herald Tribune reports: “President Mohammad Khatami said Tuesday Iran will continue its suspect nuclear program even if that means ending inspections by the U.N. nuclear agency.
‘We’ve made our choice: yes to peaceful nuclear technology, no to atomic weapons,’ Khatami told a military parade in Tehran.
‘We will continue along our path even if it leads to an end to international supervision’ of nuclear activities, the president said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has demanded that Iran forgo uranium enrichment and answer all questions about its nuclear activities within two months.
Failure to do so could result in the agency referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions.
‘They have to explicitly recognize our natural and legal right (to peaceful nuclear energy) to open the way for greater understanding and cooperation,’ Khatami said.
‘We’ve made our choice. Now it is up to others to make their choice,’ he added.
Iranian officials have rebuked the IAEA for demanding that Iran cease enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for both power stations and nuclear weapons.
While critics have said that Iran could import enriched uranium for power stations, Iran insists on developing its own supplies…”
THOUSANDS SENT vCJD EPIDEMIC WARNING
September 21, 2004
The London Daily Telegraph reports: “Thousands of patients have been sent warnings by the Government telling them that they may have been exposed to vCJD through blood plasma products.
The Department of Health has announced that more than 6,000 people will now receive letters to help minimize the possibility of passing on the human form of mad cow disease.
The department estimates that the number who may be affected directly could be around 4,000.
John Reid, the Health Secretary, and Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, said the letter was a highly precautionary measure and the risk of any of the patients developing vCJD was very small.
It follows the first possible case of a person dying after contracting vCJD through a blood transfusion, announced by Mr. Reid last December.
This led to a ban on people who have received a blood transfusion since January 1980 donating blood in the future…”
TB MAY BE GLOBAL THREAT AGAIN
September 20, 2004
Wired.com reports: “Super drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis are at the tipping point of a global epidemic, and only small changes are needed to help them spread quickly, U.S. researchers predicted Sunday.
Two separate studies show that multiple-drug-resistant TB, which can only be cured with a carefully monitored cocktail of drugs taken for months on end, could easily start spreading more commonly.
The reports, to be published in Monday's issue of the journal Nature Medicine, coincide with another report published last week saying the World Health Organization's efforts to control multi-drug-resistant TB were not working as well as hoped.
If all the reports are true, it means TB could make a dangerous new resurgence, and with new strains that are even harder to fight than the old ones.
TB infects an estimated 8.7 million people a year and kills 2 million a year despite widespread control efforts. The disease is spread by airborne bacteria that settle into the lungs and cause long-term infection. Many people who are infected do not become ill themselves but can spread it.
Tough hygiene and treatment campaigns beat TB back in places such as Europe and North America, but AIDS, with its attacks on the immune system, helped TB make a comeback in the 1990s. TB is making special gains in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. And TB strains resistant to several antibiotics are becoming increasingly prevalent, with ‘hot spots’ in Russia, Eastern Europe, South Africa, China and Israel.
WHO's main strategy to control it is called ‘directly observed treatment, short course’ or DOTS, which involves using trained health professionals to watch patients take their long courses of antibiotics…”
Militants Behead 3 Kurd Hostages in Iraq
September 19th, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants sawed off the heads of three hostages believed to be Iraqi Kurds in a grisly videotape that surfaced Sunday, hours after Iraq (news - web sites)'s prime minister said January elections would be held on schedule and asserted that American and Iraqi troops were winning the fight against an increasingly bold insurgency.
In another sign of continuing instability 17 months into the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, a suicide car bomb killed three people in Samarra — a northern city that U.S. and Iraqi commanders have portrayed as a success story in their attempts to put down the insurgency.
Over the past week, about 300 people have been killed in escalating violence, including bombings, street fighting and U.S. air strikes. Last week, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) warned there could not be "credible elections if the security conditions continue as they are now."
Hurricane Remnants Spawn Floods in North
September 19th, 2004
WHEELING, W.Va. - Hundreds of people evacuated their homes Sunday in parts of Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania as rivers and small streams were swollen beyond their banks by the torrential rain dumped by remnants of Hurricane Ivan.
The Ohio River inundated parts of Wheeling and other West Virginia river towns, as well as communities on Ohio's shore, and the Delaware River flooded parts of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.
In addition to flooding, hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses were still without electricity Sunday, most of them in Florida and Alabama.
The hurricane and its remnants had been blamed for at least 50 deaths in the United States, 16 of them in Florida, and 70 deaths in the Caribbean.
The Ohio River crested Sunday at Wheeling at about 9.3 feet above flood stage, after submerging the city's riverfront park and amphitheater. It mostly covered the city's midriver Wheeling Island, which holds residential neighborhoods and Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming.
Vault to host first Wicca wedding
September 17th, 2004
SCOTLAND'S first Wicca wedding is to go ahead in an underground vault in Edinburgh after being approved by the register general. Paul Rickards, 37, and Laurie Schedler, 42, both from Canada, are to take part in the landmark ceremony in the city's Old Town. Wiccas are referred to by some as white witches but are more accurately described as followers of an earth-worshipping neo-pagan religion. The couple do not practise the religion but chose the ceremony because of its old-world beauty. They will jump over a broomstick and have their hands bound together with a red cord during the 30-minute ceremony at the Temple of the Source Coven of the Blue Dragon in Niddry Street on Tuesday.
George Cameron, Wicca grand master of the Source
Coven, is to conduct the ceremony.
A spokesman for the General Registrar's Office said: "This is the first
time a Wicca celebrant has been authorised to carry out a marriage in Scotland.
"The group covered by the authorisation clearly meets the definition of
'religious body' in the 1977 Marriage Act – an organised group of people
meeting regularly for common worship."
SCOTLAND'S first Wicca wedding is to go ahead in an underground vault in Edinburgh after being approved by the register general. Paul Rickards, 37, and Laurie Schedler, 42, both from Canada, are to take part in the landmark ceremony in the city's Old Town. Wiccas are referred to by some as white witches but are more accurately described as followers of an earth-worshipping neo-pagan religion. The couple do not practise the religion but chose the ceremony because of its old-world beauty. They will jump over a broomstick and have their hands bound together with a red cord during the 30-minute ceremony at the Temple of the Source Coven of the Blue Dragon in Niddry Street on Tuesday. George Cameron, Wicca grand master of the Source Coven, is to conduct the ceremony. A spokesman for the General Registrar's Office said: "This is the first time a Wicca celebrant has been authorised to carry out a marriage in Scotland. "The group covered by the authorisation clearly meets the definition of 'religious body' in the 1977 Marriage Act – an organised group of people meeting regularly for common worship."
SCOTLAND'S first Wicca wedding is to go ahead in an underground vault in Edinburgh after being approved by the register general. Paul Rickards, 37, and Laurie Schedler, 42, both from Canada, are to take part in the landmark ceremony in the city's Old Town. Wiccas are referred to by some as white witches but are more accurately described as followers of an earth-worshipping neo-pagan religion. The couple do not practise the religion but chose the ceremony because of its old-world beauty. They will jump over a broomstick and have their hands bound together with a red cord during the 30-minute ceremony at the Temple of the Source Coven of the Blue Dragon in Niddry Street on Tuesday. George Cameron, Wicca grand master of the Source Coven, is to conduct the ceremony. A spokesman for the General Registrar's Office said: "This is the first time a Wicca celebrant has been authorised to carry out a marriage in Scotland. "The group covered by the authorisation clearly meets the definition of 'religious body' in the 1977 Marriage Act – an organised group of people meeting regularly for common worship."
RUSSIA MARKETS MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM
September 17, 2004
The Middle East Newsline reports: “Russia has launched the marketing of a new medium-range missile defense system.
The state-owned Rosoboronexport has briefed foreign militaries of the Buk-1M1-2 system. The system was described as being capable of intercepting both aircraft as well as a range of missiles.
‘This is the only anti-aircraft missile system of medium range in the world, which is capable of destroying in unfriendly environment of radio and fire countermeasures not only aircraft of strategic and tactical aviation, helicopters and cruise missiles, but also tactical ballistic and aircraft missiles, including anti-radar, destroying elements of high-precision weapons as well as surface and ground targets,’ Rosoboronexport said in a statement.
Russian industry sources said the Buk has been marketed to Middle East militaries. But they said the focus of the marketing effort has been European Union countries…”
Hurricane Ivan Slams Gulf Coast; 20 Dead
September 16th, 2004
PENSACOLA, Fla. - Hurricane Ivan drilled the Gulf Coast on Thursday with 130-mph winds that inflicted far less damage than feared everywhere except Florida's Panhandle, where residents were left with surge-ravaged beachfronts, flooded streets and homes ripped apart by deadly tornadoes. The storm was blamed for at least 20 U.S. deaths, most of them in Florida.
We were prepared for the hurricane, but the tornadoes were bam, bam, bam," said Glenda Nichols, manager of the Microtel Inn in Marianna, Fla. "There was nothing we could do about it. I put all my guests in their rooms and told them to get in the bathtubs."
Ivan
quickly deteriorated to a tropical storm after coming ashore. But forecasters
warned it was not done yet: It threatened up to 15 inches of rain and flooding
across the South, already soggy after Hurricanes Charley and Frances over the
past month.
And more danger could be on the horizon: Hurricane Jeanne is tearing through the Caribbean on a path that could take it into Florida early next week.
More than 2 million residents along a 300-mile stretch of the Gulf Coast cleared out as Ivan, a former 165-mph monster that killed 70 people in the Caribbean, closed in on an unsteady path.
Ivan came ashore near Gulf Shores Beach, Ala., around 3 a.m., but it was the Panhandle — squarely in the northeast quadrant of the storm, where the winds are most violent — that took the brunt.
Ivan spun off at least a dozen tornadoes in Florida, while creating a storm surge of 10 to 16 feet, topped by large battering waves. A portion of a bridge on Interstate 10, the major east-west highway through the Panhandle, was washed away.
SYRIA, EGYPT CALL FOR TALKS ON CREATION OF PALESTINIAN STATE
September 16, 2004
Ha’aretz reports: “Israel should open negotiations with Palestinians on the creation of a Palestinian state, the leaders of Syria and Egypt said after a meeting in Damascus on Wednesday.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak said Israel should ‘start negotiations for the establishment of the independent Palestinian state’, according to reports carried by the official news agencies of the two Arab states.
Assad and Mubarak also said Palestinian factions should work ‘to achieve their commitments toward the establishment of an independent state.’
The two leaders ‘emphasized their support for dialogue between Palestinian factions under Egyptian patronage to achieve unity in Palestinian ranks’, the agencies said.
Egypt has been working for months on a plan to help the Palestinians reorganize their security forces and reach a political agreement for cooperation between all the Palestinian factions after an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Palestinian factions, including the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and the Islamist groups which oppose him, resumed a dialogue on Monday at an undisclosed location in Egypt to discuss post-withdrawal arrangements.
Mubarak and Assad held their hurriedly arranged meeting a day after a divisive debate in the Arab League over Syrian troops in Lebanon.
The official Syrian Arab News Agency reported Mubarak's talks with Assad but did not give a reason for the unscheduled meeting…”
US DEBATES MILITARY STRIKES ON 'NUCLEAR IRAN'
September 16, 2004
The Financial Times reports: “The Bush administration's warnings that it will not ‘tolerate’ a nuclear-armed Iran have opened up a lively policy debate in Washington over the merits of military strikes against the Islamic republic's nuclear program.
Analysts close to the administration say military options are under consideration, but have not reached a level of seriousness that indicate the US is preparing actual action.
When asked, senior officials repeat that President George W. Bush is removing no option from the table - but that he believes the issue can be solved by diplomatic means.
Diplomacy on Wednesday appeared stalled.
The US and its European allies on the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency continued to wrangle over the wording of a resolution on Iran which insists it has no intention of using its advanced civilian program to make a bomb.
Gary Schmitt, executive director of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a neo-conservative think-tank, says that with ‘enough intelligence and spadework’, the US could ‘do a good job’ of slowing Iran's program for a while.
But, he cautions, the Bush administration would need a ‘game plan’ for the aftermath.
That long-term approach is lacking, analysts say, and has floundered in the debate over ‘regime change’.
Asked whether Israel would take military action if the US dithered, Mr. Schmitt replied: ‘Absolutely. No government in Israel will let this pass ultimately.’…”
Jeanne Nears Hurricane Strength, 2 Dead
September 16th, 2004
SAMANA, Dominican Republic - Tropical Storm Jeanne hovered near hurricane strength as it plowed through the northeastern Dominican Republic on Thursday, prompting thousands to flee their homes a day after pounding Puerto Rico and killing at least two people.
Jeanne was forecast to regain hurricane strength and move toward the Bahamas — devastated earlier this month by Hurricane Frances. It could then move toward the southeast United States, anywhere from Florida to the Carolinas. Eastern Cuba might also be hit, said forecasters
At least eight Dominicans were injured as trees were toppled and floods struck parts of the east and northeast, emergency officials said. Powerful waves pounded the north coast, along with high winds and driving rain. Phone services and electricity were knocked out in some areas.
More than 8,200 people were evacuated in the Dominican Republic, taking refuge in shelters set up in schools and churches, officials said.
"I'm worried because I don't know what's going to happen. Normally hurricanes don't come here," said Franklin Bussone, a 44-year-old Frenchman from Paris who had boarded up his small waterfront cafe and pulled chairs and tables off his terrace facing the ocean.
Jeanne became a hurricane early Thursday as winds increased to near 80 mph before hitting land at eastern village of Cabo Engano. Winds later dropped to 70 mph over the northeastern Dominican Republic. Tropical storms become hurricanes when winds reach 74 mph.
Some News Snippets Driven by JVI Prophecy News - Jack Van Impe Ministries
